Roundup: Summoning the hockey executives

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It’s day one-hundred-and-eighteen of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and word has it that the Russians are trying to overcome Severodonestk by Sunday, thereby taking the whole of the Luhansk region. While the Ukrainians are being pounded by artillery, they are allegedly inflicting heavy casualties on the Russians, but they need more Western arms, and they need them to arrive even faster if they have any hope of taking out the Russian artillery that is pounding them. Ukraine, meanwhile, is planning on taking a bunch of destroyed Russian tanks and armoured vehicles on a tour around Europe to keep attention on the conflict as it drags on.

Closer to home, the attention on the Hill yesterday was on the heritage committee, where Hockey Canada officials were summoned to explain the payout to settle a sexual assault claim, and whether federal funds were used to do so in contravention of their funding agreements. The minister has ordered a forensic audit of their finances to ensure that this didn’t happen, but we did see MPs on all sides go hard on this, as they should have. (Note that the Conservatives did try to use this issue as a means of procedural warfare in their filibuster of the online broadcasting bill, which was absolutely skeezy). Here is some comment from former athlete and whistle-blower Alheli Picazo, who has experience with the problem of tackling abuse in sport:

Good reads:

  • Chrystia Freeland met with US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in Toronto yesterday to talk about inflation, friend-shoring, and the war in Ukraine.
  • Steven Guilbeault announced next steps on the government’s single-use plastics ban, which covers things like shopping bags and take-out containers.
  • Anita Anand announced $40 billion (over twenty years) in investments to upgrade NORAD, but most of the details are still being worked out.
  • The crown prince of Luxembourg is talking about how his family took refuge in Canada during the Second World War, which is not commonly known.
  • MPs are getting panic buttons as threats against them are on the rise, some of them death threats that are being treated credibly.
  • The Liberals want to extend hybrid sittings for another year, and the NDP are going along with it (and you’d better believe I have an angry column out later today).
  • It looks like Michelle Rempel Garner may need a waiver from the UCP to run for their leadership, as she hasn’t held a membership for more than six months.
  • It’s looking increasingly like Andrea Horwath is planning to run for mayor of Hamilton as she gives up leadership of the provincial NDP.

Odds and ends:

For National Magazine, I delve into the bill to create a new oversight body for CBSA, and why it’s simply doubling down on the broken model for the RCMP.

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